strock, n.
Pronunciation: /strɒk/, /strɑk/
Forms: 15 strooche, 17 stroyk, 17 strox(e) (by confusion with pox), 17–18 strook, 17–18 stroik, 18 strok, 18 shruk (erron.). Also 18– strocke.
Etymology: < OE struycce bent twig (cognate with Dutch scheef crooked and verstuiking sprain).
1.
a. A finger which has suffered a strain, pull, wrench, or twist of the ligaments and muscles.
1721 D RGE T. COPER-PRINCE Ungriev'd by Parox. ½ 176 Having luxated, or put out of joint, one of the radiating digit-points of the hand, whereupon the medulla escapes and, congelating round the bone, quickens the formation of a osteological callous, in which the stroyk lies dormient until such time as it may emerge in full plerosis.
1734 D. DARGY Coll. Thank Yee Lett. (ed. 2) IV. № 188. vi, To carry oneself as patrician, grandling, or man of fashion, so as to be sure to avoid manual trades, here means putting on some slight ailment by soliciting invitation to sit for a picture exposing strooks, goitres, carbunkles, or other sundry micromorphia for pictorial leaves in tomes of medicament.
1786 K. SELBEAURRE Woman Cert. Age II. sig. QQviij To weary you with a further example, suppose a child, bemoaning a sore thumb, returns the following day with a distended stroick, by which action he braves another punishment for corporeal complaint.
1918 B. L. OGNIONOV Doggerel IV. llxii. 13 Hands such as these will attract even a doc / Undismayed by my clearly untreatable strocke.
1955 J. LINEWISE Adv. Grits Homicide (ed. 6) 161 Nursing a strock in her palm, she nodded at a hole in the gypsum board and about a dozen of its friends. "I guess I didn't like the wallpaper."
1959 A. BRUTON Windmill Death. 3 The last time she'd pointed out something she wanted, the consequent strock plagued her for a week. Since then they'd stopped storing the first-aid kits so close to the mousetraps.
1990 R. MASON Child. Characters 255 One can't dismiss, despite the rustic artistry, a cupidous child, the heir apparent, unrolling a bolt of silk to find the strocke of his missing father, the abducted king, giving him the finger.
2. Any wound, fracture, or damage to bone or tissue which has healed improperly or incompletely.
1769 BH L. ABRUTI Pasados I. §7 203 How oft a well meant blessing turned to curse, / As mild strox the spell's intent reversed.
3.
a. A finger when positioned to cradle or support an object. In an extended sense: Something resembling a single curled finger.
1852 A. TURTOP et al. tr. Sancy, au sieur de la Peine Crammingpouch §389 Provided a convincing subterfuge, allowing a strok at the head of a collapsible tube to avail as intended to loosen up the fiscstrings of despecting members of the league.
2015 Zimm 19º /186 Through mindfulness she had achieved a universal poetry: her strock around a boson-p(hr)en, yon pulsars forming rhymes again.
b. fig. (perh.?) An act of beckoning; a motion of the hand or forefinger communicating a will or command.
1514 ‘OWHART’ Epileny xxij. 13 Nane wyll gayne say the operacion or force of a negligent strooche to obtayn wynes at table, presumying one has learned the steelers and thieffes in the dryft of that signe.
4. hist. The weapon known as the khopesh. Extended: any similar, medium-sized, sickle-shaped bladed weapon.
a1845 M. THISTLEWICK Divers Pilgrims (1851) I. ¶49. 2, Secreting a shruk (I know not the native expression) in my solid & vaudy gentlemans petticoat, with the hope not merely to keep convenient a tool of attack, but also to fortify the bespoke quilting, and recapture the edifice of a muscular and well-turned frame.
COMPOUND
General attrib. (see quotes).
1834 B. WORRINGER Hills of Dardanfiddich 194 With that, Penny picked up the plate, placed it upright on her strocke-forefinger, and imparting a brisk tap caused it to spin; as it spun, the flatware seemed to grow larger and larger, and she to grow smaller and smaller (or was it the other way round?) until Plioup! her elastical joint collapsed altogether.
1971 J. L. CARRDELL Frict. of Repose 22 | 39 The morphallactic mermæ who ‘won the palm’ against Eliza playing catfish's cradle were surprised when the penalties for cheating didn't grow back faster, remaining insubstantial aqueous strock-forms for months.
